Ian Anderson hits the Bricks

A sampling of hot concerts on the horizon, including Madonna, Adele and Bruce Springsteen.

Phillip Valys, Sun Sentinel

Jethro Tull's flute-wielding frontman, Ian Anderson, can't say he's taken a shine to the past quarter-century of musical innovation, counting electronica, hip-hop and sampling on a list that intrudes on what he likes to call "classic sonic values."

"I don't like the newer gadgets much," admits the progressive-rock legend from his office in Wiltshire, England, speaking on a break from packing equipment and soldering cables for his solo tour this week in the United States. "I prefer the human touch and interpretation of an instrument, re-creating sonic accuracy on the Fender Jazz Bass, the Gibson Les Paul and the Hammond organ. If you want to play real music in real time, pick up a guitar and play the frigging thing."

The human touch, along with a glockenspiel, a fluegelhorn and lyrical satire, went into Jethro Tull's 1972 prog-rock opus "Thick As a Brick." The record was written by Anderson as a social critique and as a send-up of concept albums ("parodied with our dry, British humor,") following fictional 10-year-old English boy Gerald Bostock and his trials of growing up. So when Anderson conceived the idea for "Thick As a Brick II," released in April, he thought nothing of time-traveling his musical tastes to the present.

"The original was a spoof of prog-rock, and it was written during a time when Yes and early Genesis were around, so the timing was perfect," says Anderson, who will perform "Thick As a Brick" and its sequel – sans Tull – back-to-back at the Fillmore Miami Beach on Tuesday and at the Kravis Center on Wednesday. "I became interested in the fate of Gerald Bostock in 2012 and fate in general after hearing sequel requests from fans."

Anderson's new album may be filled with topical winks to the present – Starbucks, mortgage meltdowns, "draconian" bank regulation – but if you tell him that its musical themes sound as old-school as its predecessor, well, he won't disagree on that point.

"The acoustic elements are quite similar, and that's because TAAB 2 is thematically like TAAB. What I preferred to update was the lyrics," he says of the sequel, which he began writing, partly out of nostalgia, in 2010.

"I wanted to stick pointy sticks into the concept of fate, which figures into many religions. The Hindus ride motorcycles without a helmet because God has already decided on the outcome of their lives," he says. "So I jump forward through the years and show Gerald as a middle-aged man taking different paths in life."

Anderson says his own path these past 15 years has been about re-creating his original sound and, no doubt, those sonic values.

"When I tour with Jethro, we'll have a generic rock show, play 'Aqualung,' " Anderson says. "Tull means different things to different people. Some might like folk-rock and bluesy Jethro, but this is neither. This is for someone who wants a more-meaty, theatrical production."